Operation Pay Phones - Yes they are still out there

This morning, I took my son and his friend for a bike ride and we had to stop at a gas station to get some air for our tires. When I saw this old pay phone next to the coin-operated air dispenser. It looked like it hadn't been used in a while. I chuckled to myself and wondered if anyone ever used them any more.

When we got home, I was honestly surprised at the irony and timing of today's iReport assignment. I told my son about it and we grabbed the camera and the flip cam and took off.

On our way back to that station, we did look to see if there were other pay phones out there and sure enough every one we saw was outside of gas stations and no one was using them. We saw plenty of people driving and using their cell phones, but not one on a pay phone.

We went inside and asked the gas station attendant if anyone ever used the pay phone out back, and he replied "very rarely" and when they did, the most common reason was to call a taxi. Don't know if that's the case a most pay phones, but it seems to be at this particular gas station.

It's been a while since I've made a pay phone call. I thought it still costs 25 cents. Turns out it's 50 cents to make a local call these days. That's a bargain compared to the dollar I paid for air.

My son and I had a good time with this assignment. He told me next time I could use his phone for a quarter.

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